One Last Kiss
by TheUSofCalzona
Summary: After all the goodbyes are said, Arizona needs one last kiss before she can let go. WARNING: character death.


**A/N:** i_fly_solo is not ashamed to admit that she cried (kind of a lot) while she was writing this. PoweredByCoffee has this to say: "When coming up with this plot I knew how sad it was going to be. But I still think the underlying message of love and family and saying goodbye at the end of a good life are happy thoughts. Arizona got to say goodbye to her family, got to witness their love for her. I hope we are all so lucky as her."

* * *

The small hospital room was crammed with people, but Callie only had eyes for one of them. Arizona, her wife and best friend of 28 years, lay in bed, the stillest she'd been in her life. Callie gripped Arizona's hand even tighter and rested her forehead against her wife's. Maybe if she held on tightly enough, Arizona wouldn't go.

Nearly everyone was crying. Mark, Lexie, Bailey, Teddy, even Alex - there wasn't a dry eye on that side of the room. And in Callie's family, the only exception was 23-year-old Juan, determined to keep a brave face for his mothers and for his 20-year-old sister, Kat, who cried in his arms. 25-year-old Timothy Daniel - TD - cried unabashedly as he watched his mothers in what he knew were their last moments together. 28-year-old Sofia held tight to Arizona's other hand, unwilling to move even to wipe the steady stream of tears from her eyes.

Arizona was dying. It wasn't a matter of if anymore; it was a matter of when. At 63, she'd lived a rich, fulfilling life, but it wasn't nearly long enough. But the universe had apparently had other plans, and six years ago she'd been stricken with ALS. She'd fought for a good, long time, but even from the beginning, she'd known it was a fight she ultimately wouldn't win.

Callie couldn't speak; she could only whimper as more tears escaped and she pressed herself closer against her wife. Maybe, just maybe, if she was close enough, when it was time for Arizona to be taken away, Callie could be a part of her and they could go together.

All Arizona felt was weak. Her limbs were weak, weak and heavy. Her mind was clear; she knew she didn't have much time left. It was nearing her final hour and she needed to say good bye to the ones that had been there for her over the last 30 years. She used all of her mental ability to force her head up, looking at the people in the room. "Teddy, come here," she whispered, wanting to say goodbye to all of her friends; needing that closure for herself before she let go.

Teddy shook her head, but stepped closer to Arizona anyway. Neither Callie nor Sofia was willing to move from her spot, so Teddy just got as close as she could, trying to see through the seemingly never-ending tears.

"No," she whimpered, though she knew it was futile. Even if she weren't a cardiothoracic specialist, she'd know Arizona didn't have much time left. "No." Over the years, they'd only grown closer as friends. Arizona had always, always been there for her. What was she going to do now? "Arizona..."

Arizona weakly tugged her hand out of her daughter's, slowly reaching up to touch the side of Teddy's face. "You have been my best friend for 30 years," she whispered, stopping a second to cough. She smiled at her wife who wiped the spit off her chin. "You are such a great friend, Teddy. And a hell of a doctor. Thank you for being there for me all the times I needed you. Thank you," she whispered, the start of tears forming in her eyes.

Sofia looked like she wanted to grab Arizona's hand again, but she graciously let Teddy get as close as she wanted.

"No, Arizona," Teddy whispered. "Thank _you_. I don't know what I would have done without you. You're an incredible person. You always will be, okay? I-I love you." Her voice cracked. This wasn't supposed to be the last time she got to say that.

"I love you too, Theodora." Arizona knew how much Teddy hated to be called that, but hey, she was dying, what was the worst that could happen? "I'll say hi to Henry when I see him. Kick his ass for leaving you so soon." She knew the pain from Henry had healed for Teddy, but she would always have a soft spot in her heart for her first husband.

Teddy barked out a laugh through her tears. "Watch it, Robbins. Don't forget, I'm going to see you up there one day too, and then I'm going to kick _your_ ass for calling me that." She kissed Arizona's forehead, then ran a hand over Callie's hair as a comforting gesture.

After Teddy retook her place by the door, Arizona looked to another one of her friends, someone she had known longer than Teddy or even Callie. "Come here, Chief. Unless you have some interns to go bust for sleeping with each other in on-call rooms." She gave Bailey a weak smile, her hand falling to the bed, too weak to hold out.

Bailey shook her head. "They're going to nasty up the on-call rooms whether I bust them or not." She stepped closer to Arizona, rubbing a hand over Sofia's shoulder as she passed her. She picked up Arizona's weakened hand. "You listen to me, Arizona Robbins. You are one of the finest doctors I have ever had the pleasure of working with. You are brave, and strong, and kind, and I am honored -" Here her voice broke. "I am honored to have been able to call myself your friend."

Hearing Miranda Bailey, one of the strongest women, people, she knew voice crack like that made Arizona tear up even more. "You are all those things too. You have been the finest chief I have ever served under. I am going to miss you. I'm going to miss watching you be awesome, Bailey." She coughed again, this time blood coming out a bit. "Give Tuck a hug and tell him he is doing great work." Tuck had become a doctor for Doctors without Borders about three years ago.

"I will," Bailey promised, trying to steady her voice. "I expect to hear you rolling around on those damn wheel shoes up there." That got a soft chuckle from Sofia and a grateful smile from Callie.

"Every time you hear thunder, it's me falling on my ass." Arizona gave a weak smile to Bailey, knowing she had seen some of her less graceful moments over the years. "Thank you for being a friend, Bailey. I wouldn't have been able to be as good without you there helping me."

Bailey just nodded stoically, stepping back and letting Alex move forward before Arizona even got a chance to ask.

"I don't know what to say," Alex admitted, his voice choked. "You're the best." He'd been appointed head of Pediatrics when Arizona had had to step down, a position everyone in the hospital could unanimously agree he deserved. "I wouldn't be here without you."

"No, you wouldn't," Arizona agreed. "When I first met you, you were rude, annoying, undisciplined, and a total pain in the ass." She couldn't stop from smirking just a little bit. "But now you are one of the best doctors in our field. It has been my pleasure to work with you. And I know that the future of Peds is brought because you are in it." She started to cry a little bit, unable to help it.

Alex's own tears dripped onto Arizona's hand. "We, uh, we've decided to dedicate the pediatrics wing to you," he said. "You're probably going to haunt the hell out of us for that, but we figured it was worth it. You deserve to be remembered. Forever."

"At least I'll still be watching over you. To make sure you don't get lazy in your old age." She reached up, stroking his cheek softly. "You were the first resident here that I knew could take my job one day and do it better than I could do it. Thank you, Alexander, for proving me right." She closed her eyes and let two tears slide down her cheeks, trying to hold off the rest.

Callie wiped Arizona's tears from her face, knowing her wife was too weak to do it herself. "Before you ask," Callie said, her voice scratchy, "yes, I knew about the dedication from the start. No, it was not my idea, yes, I knew you probably wouldn't want it, and no, I don't care." She kissed Arizona's tear tracks.

Arizona didn't open her eyes but she did smile softly, giving what little squeeze she could to Callie's hand. "You will get payback for this, Calliope Iphigenia." She made sure to say Callie's middle name, even if she stumbled over it a little bit now. It wasn't an easy name to say in the best of times, let alone now. "I will have my revenge."

Callie chuckled and sniffled as tears of her own leaked from her eyes. "You'd better." She smoothed some of Arizona's hair back as Mark took Alex's place.

"Hey, Arizona," he said. For the first time in his life, he found himself at a loss for words. "You, uh, wow. Where do I start?"

"Touch my wife after I'm gone and I will come back from the dead and cut your penis off with a rusty nail," Arizona said, forcing her eyes open and giving Mark all the stare-down that she could muster. "Hands off, Sloan."

Mark gulped, even though he knew it was an idle threat in more ways than one. Neither Callie nor Mark had so much as looked at anyone else since their respective marriages. "Don't worry," he promised. He cleared his throat. "It's hard to believe there was ever a time when I didn't like you." But Arizona...god, I'm so glad you've been in my life. You've been a great friend to me, an amazing mother to your children. We may have gotten off on the wrong foot, but now I can't -" The normally stoic Mark couldn't hold back his tears as his voice broke. "I can't imagine my life without you in it," he finally choked out.

"Come here." Arizona opened her arms a little so he could give her a hug. "I might have not liked you at times, and there were times that I hated you. But you have been a wonderful father to our daughter and a great uncle to my kids. You are a good man, Mark Sloan. Even if sometimes you do everything that you can think of not to show it." She breathed in that aftershave she used to hate but now had gotten used to. "Take care of my girls after I'm gone. I don't trust anyone else with that job, you know."

Mark just nodded, unable to say anything else. He pressed a kiss to Arizona's cheek, then stepped back, enveloping Sofia in a strong hug. His once impossibly tiny daughter, now an elementary school teacher, was able to rest her head on his shoulder. Together, they moved to the side to make room for Lexie to step up and take her turn.

Over the years Arizona and Lexie had become good friends. Oftentimes when the four of them got together for dinner, Mark and Callie would talk together about something that Lexie and Arizona had little interest in. So their friendship was born out of their partners. "You have kept me sane for 27 years. How do I thank you for that?" she asked, looking up and still seeing the resident that she knew all those years ago. But now Lexie was one of the world's leading doctors in the treatment of burns. Arizona liked to think she might have played a small part in that after the case they worked on together when she told Lexie to get over herself and treat the teenager with burns.

"I should be the one thanking you," Lexie said, shaking her head. "You've taught me so much. Both in the hospital and out. I don't think I'd be where I am today, in any aspect of my life, without you. You're one of the most amazing people I know and I'm going to miss you like crazy." She squeezed Arizona's shoulder. "Remember that party two years ago when you beat me at Trivial Pursuit? It was the first time I'd ever lost!"

"I was alive in the '70s, Lexie. I didn't have to read about it." Arizona teased her dear friend about her age more than once, though over the years it had faded some. "Make sure you take care of that old lug you are married to. And the twins too." She thought to the boys that were like her sons, both studying aboard.

"I will," she whispered. "It's going to be hard without you," she admitted as a few tears she'd been holding back escaped.

She'd been quiet thus far, but when she heard Lexie's admission, Kat let out a loud sob. Life without her momma was going to be impossibly hard, and to hear Lexie say it out loud was too much. Juan hugged her more tightly, but it didn't make her feel better. In turn, Callie felt her own chest tighten at Lexie's words and Kat's subsequent cries.

"Come here, Kit Kat," Arizona whispered, looking over at her youngest daughter. She was the only one that was Arizona's though biology, though Callie still carried her. "Come here and let Momma make it better." She knew for the first time in her life she couldn't fix this for Kat. She could just be there for her and hope she made it though.

"Momma," Kat whimpered as she extricated herself from Juan's arms and burrowed into Arizona's to the best of her ability. "I can't," she cried. "I can't. Momma, I can't. I need you."

"I know you do, Kit Kat." Arizona stroked her daughter's hair the best that she could, hoping to make it a little bit better. "But I am so weak, and Uncle Timmy is waiting for me up there with Nana and Papa," she whispered as she thought of her parents and brother.  
"Please don't," Kat whispered, even though she knew it was inevitable. And truly, she didn't want her mother to suffer anymore. "I love you so much. What am I gonna do?" Ever since she was little, Arizona was the one Kat had gone to. She kissed skinned knees, sat up with her when she had nightmares, and took care of her when she was sick. When Kat broke up with her first boyfriend, she'd called Arizona. The thought of no longer having her momma in her life made her physically sick. "I don't want you to hurt anymore," she finally admitted. "But...but what am I gonna do?"

"You are going to put one foot in front of the other and you are going to take it a second at a time." Arizona weakly moved over in the bed, letting her baby lay with her. There were enough doctors in the room to stop her but none made a move to. There was a bond between those two unlike anything else. "You are going to go to school and become the best writer that you can be, because you always made me so happy when you handed me one of your new stories to read. You are going to be great. And every night when you are lying in bed asleep, I am going to look down and kiss your forehead like I used to do when you were little."

Kat sniffled loudly. "Promise?"

"Yes, I promise." Arizona turned her head, kissing Kat's forehead. "You're my Kit Kat, my baby. I will always be there for you." She knew that she and her daughter were so much alike, so she worried how she would handle this. "Can you get up for a second so I can talk to Juan?"

"Okay," Kat agreed, nodding reluctantly. She got up, trying to figure out whom to go to for comfort. Everybody was so sad, it was hard to decide. Normally, she would have gone to Callie, but she didn't want to add to her grief. Finally she went to Bailey, who tucked her into her arms without a word.

"Hey, Momma," Juan said, still holding back his tears. He sat down in the spot his sister had vacated and reached for Arizona's hand.  
"My little warrior." Arizona looked at his Marine t-shirt, trying not to cry. He was the only Marine in the family; TD had gone into law enforcement instead. "You make me so very proud, Juan Torres Robbins. You are one of the good ones. And I like to think it was all the Disney movies I made you watch as a boy."

"Momma, you and I both know I loved them," he joked. He turned abruptly serious. "I'm one of the good ones because of you." He kissed Arizona's cheek. "I love you. I'm proud of you, too." A tear finally escaped and he sniffled, desperate to hold off the rest. "Damn it, I wasn't going to cry."

"Crying doesn't make you weak m'ijo. It shows that you are strong enough to let go of your pain." Juan had always been the one that wanted to protect his mother and sisters, even if he was younger than three out of the four. He was the little warrior. "You make me so happy and so proud and so loved, Juan. I love you, my son. As much as if I had been the one to carry you. But it all falls to all four of you."

"I promise to take care of Madre and Kat," Juan said solemnly. "And TD and Sofia, even though they probably won't let me." He surveyed the room. "Who do you want to talk to next? I'll get them for you." He noticed that even over the course of the past thirty minutes, Arizona had been getting progressively weaker, and he would do whatever he could to make however much life she had left easier for her.

Arizona kissed her son's forehead like she had with all her children when they were small. "Get your brother for me." She figured if she had gone by age so far, she might as well finish it up that way. She knew she was getting weaker and soon she wouldn't be able to do anything but fade off into whatever came next.

"TD," he said, getting out of the bed and crossing the room to his brother. "Your turn." Another tear rolled down his cheek as he looked TD in the eye. "Your turn to tell Momma you love her for the last time" was the unspoken truth.

"Hi, baby boy." Arizona had started calling him that when he was born, and even after Juan came along, she didn't stop. "You should be in Arizona on that training thingy. Are you ditching work just to be with your old mom?" She knew that he would never go to work or train when she was here dying, but she still wanted to tease him some.

"You're the only Arizona I'm ever going to care about," he replied. "You're the best, Momma. Thank you for everything."  
"Hey." Callie, who had been content to let Arizona have her own moments with everyone, couldn't resist injecting the tiniest bit of humor into the room. She certainly needed it, even if no one else did. "I thought I was the best." To her relief, everyone chuckled softly, even Kat, who was still wrapped up in Bailey's embrace.

TD just rolled his eyes. "You're the best, Momma," he repeated, and kissed Arizona's cheek.

Callie nodded. "You really are." She trailed a tender finger down Arizona's face. There was a murmur of agreement across the room.  
Arizona looked at her oldest son, the one who always wanted to protect his siblings from the word. "I want you to promise me something, Timothy Daniel." She rarely used his full name, but in this case she felt that she needed to. "I want you to make sure that you have brunch with your Madre and siblings every Sunday. And you make sure that she's not holed up in our house moping too much, all right?"

"Absolutely," he promised without missing a beat. "But," he added as an afterthought, "I can't promise we won't all mope a little. We're going to miss you, you know. A lot." His eyes welled with tears and he kissed Arizona on the cheek again. "Say hi to Nana and Papa for me, okay?"

"Promise." Arizona knew the next two might be the hardest goodbyes of the day. She and Sofia had always been very close, and how could she say goodbye to her wife? Turning her head after TD got up, she looked at her daughter. "Sofia Robbin, my first born and my baby. How much you have grown since I made your heart beat."

Sofia made a sound between a laugh and a sob as she collapsed onto the bed after TD had gotten up. Mark, his arms now empty, made a beeline for Lexie.

"Momma," Sofia stuttered as she tried to control her crying. "Remember when I was five and I decided to run away from home so I asked you to drive me to the park?"

"I drove you around for three hours while we talked and then took you to the park. But it was already dark and you got scared," Arizona whispered, cuddling to her daughter a little bit. "I told you that even if you ran away from me I'd always be there when you came back."

"And-and-" Sofia stammered. "Now you're n-not going to be there anymore. But-but do you p-promise to wait for me wherever you go? I love you so much, Momma." She buried her head in the crook of Arizona's neck and began to cry in earnest.

Arizona held her daughter, wanting to give her the moment that she needed. She wanted to make this easier for her but she wasn't sure that was possible. "I love you Sofia, you will always be my first born. Always be the one whose heart I made beat," she whispered into her daughter's ear. It was a struggle to hold on to Sofia but she did it anyway; she didn't have a choice anymore. Her daughter needed her and she had to be there one more time.

"And you'll always be my momma. My first word. No m-matter how old I get or how long you're-you're gone." She could barely get the words out. this was the first time she'd spoken aloud the truth of her momma being gone, and she wished beyond all reason that she didn't have to say it. "I'll still tell you I love you. Every night, I promise."

Arizona struggled to turn her head and give her daughter a kiss, but she did it anyway. "I have to say goodbye to your Madre now, okay?" She knew her time was running out. And honestly, she wasn't sure how she could die without being able to say goodbye to the woman she had loved for nearly half of her life. Closing her eyes, she felt someone get into bed after Sofia got out. Opening her eyes again, she saw the same brown eyes she looked into on her wedding day. "I guess we made it to the 'till death do us part' thing, didn't we?"

"Arizona, no," Callie whimpered. "Don't joke about that." She joined her hand with Arizona's and looked down at them clasped together for the last time. "I don't know what I'm going to do without you," she said honestly. "Arizona, you are my wife, the mother of my children, my best friend, and my soul mate. Death-" She choked on the word. "Death won't change that. I love you. Arizona Robbins, I love you more than I could ever say." She pressed her face as close to Arizona's as she could.

"You and I are going to meet up in the big dirty bar bathroom in the sky." Arizona hurt with every movement that she made, but that didn't stop her from wrapping her arms around her wife and holding her tightly. "I promise that I will be waiting for you when you get up there. And I will have a glass of wine and a couch by a fire waiting to welcome you." She knew that was Callie's favorite way to relax after a long, stressful day. "I love you Calliope Robbins. You are the best thing that has ever happened to me."

"You're the best thing that's ever happened to me, too," Callie said, crying freely. She looked up at her children. "Sorry, guys." She lay her head back down next to her wife's, looking into her eyes. Even clouded with weakness and pain, Arizona's eyes were the most brilliant shade of blue she'd ever seen. Callie could get lost there for hours. "You're so beautiful, Arizona," she whispered. She took a deep breath. The next part was going to be the hardest. "I don't want you to leave me," she said. "But I don't want to see you hurt anymore. So just close your eyes and go to sleep, honey. I'm right here."

"Can I have a final request?" Arizona opened her eyes as big as they had been in days. "One last time before I shuffle off this mortal coil. Can I have one last kiss?" She and Callie hadn't really kissed in the last three or four days, too worried about other things for their lips to meet. But right now, with her lasts breaths that was all that she wanted. One last kiss.

"Oh, god, Arizona," Callie breathed. "You don't even have to ask." She pressed her lips to her wife's, marveling at how soft and sweet they were - just like always. How she was supposed to live the rest of her life without feeling those lips on hers, Callie had no idea. She kissed with everything she had, determined to make it go on as long as it possibly could. She cupped Arizona's face in her hand, brushing her lips against her wife's one last time before she finally had to pull back for air.

Arizona cried as she kissed Callie one last time. It hurt to move the way she was and she was so damn weak. But it hurt more because this was it. This was the last kiss they were ever going to share. As her head went to lie against Callie's chest and her fingers wrapped around Callie's, Arizona closed her eyes for the last time. Without any show about it, without any fuss, she slowly drifted away. The only signal of her passing was the steady beeping of the heart monitor.

Callie pulled Arizona's body close to her and buried her face in her wife's soft hair as she cried. There was so much more left to say; so much more left to do. It couldn't all be over already. But Callie knew without a doubt that if she were given the chance to do it all over again, even knowing the outcome, she would. She'd do it all a thousand times.

Arizona Robbins had stolen her heart in the bathroom of Joe's bar all those years ago, and even in death, she still held it as strongly as ever.


End file.
